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Tag Archives: 4th of July

Every July 4th, The New York Times would print the Declaration of Independence on the back page of the first section. I don’t know if they still do, but I found it comforting to see it there and would read it once again. I hope that on occasion everyone takes a look at it and remembers that July 4th isn’t only fireworks, cookouts, family reunions, sales, etc. Do enjoy – and realize that this piece of paper gave us many of those pleasures.

I recall the lines of Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800, “For I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” These words are carved inside the Rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial.

Another quote comes to mind, its provenance less than certain, attributed to Benjamin Franklin in 1787 at the close of the Constitutional Convention: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin, ‘Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?’ Franklin replied, ‘A republic…if you can keep it.'”

The fragility of the concept of democracy wasn’t lost of Franklin, or the other founding fathers who drafted the Constitution, The Federalist Papers, et al. I think it’s a healthy reminder not to take for granted what we have, to respect it, to nurture it.

This past weeks’ articles in The New Yorker on free speech on college campuses and the polarity of the current political situation are unsettling. Let’s take a moment to count to ten, to think before we speak, to try, at least, to listen to other’s views even if we don’t agree with them – instead of tearing into one another. I can’t speak for anyone else to make such suggestions, but I shall do this myself and reflect on the state of our past as a country and where we may be headed in the future. I am concerned for us. I would like to think that we, individually and as a country, if indeed we are the greatest nation in the world (I do not subscribe to this level of hyperbole which inevitably creates a hierarchy that leaves others lacking), then we need to set an admirable, self-respecting and respectful example.